Garment



. Nov. 15, 1938. M. J. KANOVITZ GARMENT Filed April 2, 1938 Jflgyer J: Kano,

Patented Nov. 15, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 5 Claims.

My invention relates generally to garments, and more particularly to outer coats which are reversible in that either face of the coat may be worn on the outside. The invention is directed to the improvement in the construction of such garments so as to make their general appearance more attractive without materially increasing the cost of manufacture.

In the design ofthe reversible garment which is, at present, in the greatest demand, the two faces of such garment are usually made of different fabrics, one such face being of Wool and the other of gabardine. With this construction, the coat can be worn as a top coat in clear weather with the wool fabric showing, or may be reversed in rainy weather with the gabardine fabric outermost, the gabardine face acting as a raincoat.

Difiiculty has been experienced heretofore in the making of reversible garments in securing a correct hang of the garment. That is to say, it has been difficult to manufacture the garment in such a way that the lower edges of the two faces of the garment shall always hang in the same plane. This difficulty arises in several different ways. As is well known, gabardine is primarily a cotton fabric and is therefore more susceptible to shrinkage when wet than is wool fabric. Since the gabardine face of the coat is worn in rainy weather, the problem of shrinkage becomes very important, since any shrinkage of the gabardine face will expose the lower edge of the inner wool face, thus giving the garment an unsightly appearance.

It is also well known that wool and cotton have different stretching coefficients, the wool stretching more than the cotton. As a result of this inequality in stretching, the wool face elongates in use disproportionately to the cotton face and when the garment is worn with the gabardine or cotton face on the outside, the lower edge of the wool face will be visible thus marring the general effect of the coat.

Accordingly, the principal object of my invention is to overcome the above defined defects in reversible garments and I accomplish this object by providing the cotton face with a pleated portion at its lower edge, which portion can be extended and re-pressed to accommodate itself to any change in length due to shrinking or stretching and thereby permit the lower edges of the two layers to be made coextensive.

A further object'of my invention is to accomplish the aforesaid object at a lower cost than has been done heretofore.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear as the description of the drawing proceeds. I desire to have it understood, however, that I do not intend to limit myself to the particular details shown and described, but that I intend to include as part of my invention, all such obvious changes and modifications as would occur to persons skilled in this art.

My invention will be understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary detail view of the lower portion ofa garment having my invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a similar view taken from the reverse side.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a lower corner of the garment.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-section thru the lower portion of the garment when in normal condition.

Fig. 5 is a similar View after the garment has undergone both shrinkage and stretching.

Fig. 6 is a similar view after the garment has been adjusted and repressed.

Fig. 7 is a View similar to Fig. 4, showing a slight modification of the invention.

Referring to the drawing in detail, in which only a portion of the garment is shown, the coat as a whole is denoted by the numeral 8, the cotton or gabardine face being indicated by 9 and the wool face by If]. As will be clearly apparent, the reversible garment is adapted to be worn with face 9 outermost in rainy weather, and the coat may be reversed and worn with the face II] on the outside in clear weather. For the purpose of more clearly explaining the invention, the garment will be described with the gabardine face outermost.

The face 9 is formed with a pleated portion l l, which pleat may or may not be integral With the face material. The pleat ll extends between 'the two layers of material as clearly shown in Fig. 4, and has fold. I2 thereof secured to fold l3 of face ill by stitching I4 or its equivalent.

As will be clearly apparent, the garment, when first formed, is pressed with the pleated portion ll between the two layers of material and with the two lower edges l5 and l 6 in substantially the same plane. When a garment thus constructed is worn, either of two situations might arise. The cotton face might shrink or the wool face might stretch as seen in Fig. 5. Thus, portion I! would protrude below the edge [5, and since the two materials making up the garment are usually of different colors, the protruding portion would give the garment an unsightly appearance.

To overcome this objectionable feature, it is only necessary to re-press the garment using the excess material in pleat l I to lengthen the cotton face. In this way, edge [5 can always be adjusted so as to be made co-extensive with edge [6, as seen in Fig. 6.

Thus it will be seen, that I have provided a relatively simple construction for overcoming an undesirable defect common in reversible garments.

In Fig. '7, I have shown a slight modification of my invention concept, in which the stitching between the pleat and the wool face has been omitted. In this form of the invention, it is only.

necessary to repress the lower edge of face 9 using the excess material in the pleat to bring edge 15 into alignment with edge I6.

Although I have described the two fabrics as being of cotton and wool, I do not intend to limit myself to these two materials since my invention is applicable to reversible garments made of other materials, it only being necessary that the shrinkage and stretching factors of the materials employed differ.

Thus it will be seen that the constructions herein shown and described are well adapted to accomplish'the objects of the present invention. It will be understood, however, that the invention may be embodied otherwise than here shown and .that in the embodiments illustrated, certain changes in the construction may be made. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited precisely to the construction herein shown except as may be required by the appended claims considered with reference to the prior art.

Having thus describedthe invention, what is claimed is:

1. A reversible garment comprising two layers of fabrics, the lower edges of said fabrics normally lying in substantially the same plane, one

' *of said layers being of shrinkable material and having a folded portion at its lower edge, said folded portion extending upwardly a substantial distance, and being unattached to said layer, said folded portion adapted to be extended to com- "pensate for shrinkage in said fabric so that the lower edge of the shrinkable material may again be positioned in substantially the same plane as the lower edge of the other fabric.

2. A reversible garment comprising two layers of fabrics, the lower edges of said fabrics normally lying in substantially the same plane, one of said layers being of shrinkable material and having a folded portion at its lower edge, said folded portion extending upwardly a substantial distance, and being unattached to said layer, said other layer having an upwardly folded portion free of said layer, the folded portion of the shrinkable material adapted to be extended to compensate for shrinkage in said fabric so that the lower edge of the shrinkable material may again be positioned in substantially the same plane as the lower edge of the other fabric.

3. A garment comprising inner and outer faces, either of said faces adapted to be worn on the outside, the lower edges of said faces normally lying in the same plane, one of said faces comprising gabardine fabric, said other face comprising wool fabric, and a folded portion on the lower edge of the gabardine face extending upwardly a substantial distance, said folded portion being free of the gabardine face for permitting extension of the gabardine face so that the folded edge thereof may be positioned in substantially the same plane as the lower edge of the other fabric.

4. A reversible garment having faces of different material, the lower portions of said material being folded upwardly and having the lower P folded edges lying in substantially the same plane, one of said folds extending above the other fold and having a downwardly folded portion, the free edge of which is attached adjacent the free edge. of said other fold, said folded portions being freeof their adjacent faces.

5..Av reversible garment having faces of different fabrics, one of said fabrics being of shrinkable materiahthe lower portions of said faces being folded upwardly, the folded edges formed thereby lying in substantially the same plane, the foldedportions ofv said shrinkable material extending upwardly a substantial distance and having a downwardly extending fold, the free edge of which is attached to the free edge of the fold on the other fabric, said folded portions being free of their adjacent faces whereby the lower edge of thev shrinkable material may be extended into the same plane as the lower folded edge of the other fabric.

MEYER J. KANOVITZ. 

